Getting Started with Metabolism
This article is written to get you started manipulating your metabolism and troubleshooting potential problems if your bacterium stops making energy. If you are unaware what the word metabolism means - it is the break-down and building-up of molecules using or spending energy. Metabolism is important for your bacteria as it will give you energy so you can move around. Anabolism is the building of molecules. Catabolism is the break down of molecules. The Default Metabolsim The default metabolism is set-up similarly to your metabolsim (assuming that a human is readi ng this), which means that they are aerobes (require oxygen). The bacteria eat sugars (monosaccharides), breaths oxygen, and releases carbon dioxide. But here are some sublte points about it. Monosaccharides Hopefully you know to collect this molecule, but what if you want to know how much of it is in the cell? To get this information, go Menu -> Metabolism -> Carbon (carbon is the default, so chances are that's what will come up). In fact the metabolism screen has all values of all nutrients. Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Carbon dioxide is a waste product of your metabolism. Luckily since carbon dioxide is a gas it freely difuses out of your bacterium. But if you change your metabolism, you could have a different waste product, which might not automatically leave the cell. Oxygen Oxygen is another important molecule for your metabolism, and luckily, like carbon dioxide, it i s a gas that freely difuses in and out of the cell. Unlike carbon dioxide, oxygen is not a waste product and is required to create energy. Since the level of oxygen in the cell is that in the envrionment, you might want to know how to check the oxygen levels in the environment. The simplest way is by pressing "1" to bring up environmental information. Oxygen is the bottom-most value in white The two other ways to view oxygen levels are to go Menu->Envrionment. An alternate way is Menu->Metabolism->other. Water Water is another 'waste' product during your metabolism, but as it too diffuses in and out of your cell freely, don't worry about it. Since it is 'waste' you also don't have to collect water. NADH/NAD+ Here's something new. In metabolsim, taking large steps in energy means you loose some energy in the process. So taking smaller steps inbetween improves the overall efficiency of your metabolism system. NADH/NAD+ is one of these steps. At this point you don't entirely have to know everything about what's going on with NAD. What you need to know about NAD is that it's needed for your metabolism to work, it's made inside the cell, and every time you divide NAD (just like every other nutrient) is halfed as it's split between each bacteria. So if you continually divide your bacterium, the NAD levels will drop between the bacteria. To keep up NAD levels, you can Set a key to do the job. To do this, simply set a key to produce NAD+/NADH and click that key to produce the nutrient. This will cost you some monosaccharide, so don't leave it on all the time. If you want to check which molecules your cells are producing at a time press "7". If you want to check NAD levels go Menu->Metabolism-> other. You can also make NAD+ or NADH by left clicking on the names. Right clicking on the names will destroy NAD+ or NADH. Changing Transport For full article see : Changing Structure For Full article see: Other Metabolism Fun Category:Tutorials Category:Metabolism